My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean

by Amy Dresner

$15.93

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Author: Amy Dresner

Publisher: Hachette Books

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 9780316430937
ISBN 13: 978-0316430937

Hardcover:
ISBN 10: 0316430951
ISBN 13: 978-0316430951

In the tradition of Blackout and Permanent Midnight, a darkly funny and revealing debut memoir of one woman's twenty-year battle with sex, drugs, and alcohol addiction, and what happens when she finally emerges on the other side.

Growing up in Beverly Hills, Amy Dresner had it all: a top-notch private-school education, the most expensive summer camps, and even a weekly clothing allowance. But at 24, she started dabbling in meth in San Francisco and unleashed a fiendish addiction monster. Soon, if you could snort it, smoke it, or have sex with it, she did.

Thus began a spiral that eventually landed her in the psych ward--and then penniless, divorced, and looking at 240 hours of court-ordered community service. For two years, assigned to a Hollywood Boulevard "chain gang," she swept up syringes (and worse) as she bounced from rehabs to halfway houses, all while struggling with sobriety, sex addiction, and starting over in her forties. In the tradition of Orange Is the New Black and Jerry Stahl's Permanent Midnight, this is an insightful, darkly funny, and shamelessly honest memoir of one woman's battle with all forms of addiction, hitting rock bottom, and forging a path to a life worth living.

Review

One of BookAuthority's Best Memoir Books of All Time

"Dresner's book is a sickening masterpiece. Hilarious and raw, she cuts to bony truth. I love her!"―Margaret Cho

"Like Carrie Fisher's 1987 autobiographical novel, Postcards From the Edge, and Mary Karr's 2009 memoir, Lit, Amy Dresner's story of addiction and recovery, My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Stay Clean (Hachette Books), is one for the ages."―Elle

"Darkly funny, the memoir reckons with demons--sex addiction, drugs, and the quest for sobriety--in brutally honest, entertaining prose."―Refinery29

"Dresner delivered a debut memoir equal parts hilarious and chilling. My Fair Junkie is a must-read story."―POPSUGAR

"Mortifying, hilarious, unsparing, and weirdly life-affirming, My Fair Junkie hits the ground screaming and never lets up. As with all great 'drug memoirs,' the subject of this raw, squirm-fest of an autobiography is not drugs, but what made drugs necessary: the twisted history and relatably depraved torments of the author's own strung-out heart. For fans of Beyond Shame, low-bottom recollectors like Augusten Burroughs and Stephen Elliot, Amy Dresner has earned her spot on the shelf."―Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight

"Funny, raw, real, and moving. Amy's memoir digs deep inside the world of addiction and takes you on a ride you'd pay to go on again. Amy, like addiction, is a complicated beast that needs to be unraveled and exposed to understand--and she does just that in My Fair Junkie, an incredible read." ―Amber Tozer, author of Sober Stick Figure

"I loved this book! Amy Dresner is the real deal; a fiercely funny writer whose insights into addiction and recovery--and life--are full of truth, free of self-pity, sometimes scathing, often poignant, irresistibly page-turning, and painfully hilarious."―Stephen Guirgis, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright

"The story she tells is hysterically funny at one moment and utterly harrowing the next--and often manages to be both those things at once."―Lawrence Block, New York Times bestselling and award-winning crime novelist, journalist, and author of the short story collection Enough Rope

"Hypnotic, magical, mesmerizing. Truly great. Amy Dresner is the most startlingly alert, poetic, stunning writer I have come across in decades. She is a real talent such as one rarely encounters."―Ben Stein, lawyer, economist, actor, and author of How to Ruin Your Financial Life

"One of the funniest, most heart wrenching, real, raw, touching, revelatory, and beautiful memoirs I've ever read. It transcends just the addiction lit genre to become something far more universal-something profoundly human-and captivating. I found myself laughing out loud over and over again, while, at the same time, being deeply moved by Dresner's account of addiction to more than just substances, but the need for connection in this increasingly disparate and fractured world."―Nic Sheff, author of Tweak and We All Fall Down

About the Author

Amy Dresner is a former professional stand-up comic, having appeared at The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Improv. Since 2012, she has been the sole columnist for the online addiction and recovery magazine TheFix.com. She also recently started freelancing for the Good Men Project and has been a regular contributor to Addiction.com and PsychologyToday.com where she has her own addiction blog entitled "Coming Clean" and is one of only a select few contributors without a Ph.D. selected to write for the website.

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My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean